


Winter Mornings

by mixthealphabet



Series: And It Grows [3]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Nalu Week, Summer, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-01
Updated: 2013-06-01
Packaged: 2017-12-13 15:34:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/825898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mixthealphabet/pseuds/mixthealphabet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There were times when Lucy imagined how her life would be without Natsu, and she realized that the repulsion she felt towards that idea might mean she saw him as something more than a best friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Winter Mornings

_Your words like smoke, they made me sick but they kept me warm._

Lucy missed summer.

She missed the warmth that crept into her room and the way the morning breeze would come in through her window, filling her house with the scent of flowers and freshly cut grass from her neighbor's garden. Petals would somehow make their way to her floor, bright and yellow like the sun that would stare down at Magnolia during the day.

At night, she used a combination of fans and some of Gray's more complex works to soften the heat, and Lucy would sleep with her window open and in her favorite camisole. The temperature would decline with time, and she would wake up tangled in her sheets with the faces of her best friend and his exceed staring at her.

Despite the fright it never failed to give her, their presence was also a strange reminder of how comfortable the trio had become around each other, of all the good things that Magnolia had given her.

But winter always came, with strong winds and thunder storms that were completely different from the pouring rains that accompanied summer, and  _snow_. It got  _everywhere_ , making  _everything_  humid. Her apartment cracked with the cold and the days never seemed to last as long.

Yes, she liked wearing her big pajamas and hiding underneath her covers with hot tea and a book. Yes, she enjoyed the freshness of the season, and how it made the Guild feel warm and cozy.

Yet, Lucy missed the flowers and the yellow and sleeping with her window open.

He never came in the winter.

The celestial mage didn't understand why this simple fact affected her so much. She knew that Natsu would come if asked, and she knew that the only reasons he didn't visit were that the closed window made it difficult to sneak in and that moving across town with all that snow was quite a challenge for the small exceed.

However, she also wanted – irrationally – for them to make the effort to be with her.

Or maybe just Natsu. That would be fine, as well.

In her mind, Lucy made excuses. There was certainly no hidden cause for her sudden necessity to be around her best friend. Even suggesting such a thing would be preposterous, for there was nothing between them besides companionship and love. Love in the most innocent of ways, definitely not in a romantic sense.

"Oh, what am I thinking?" The girl shrieked into her pillow, rubbing her face against the soft fabric in an attempt to clear her head of such traitorous thoughts.

She should have gotten up hours earlier, but it was so cold outside of her bed that not even the prospect of breakfast had been enough incentive. Instead, Lucy had drunk the tea that was left from the previous night and attacked the pot of honey that was still sitting on her bedside table from being used to sweeten her tea.

It had been only after this that her mind had drifted to her partner, lamenting his absence on yet another morning. She could imagine the way his heat would feel against her cold body, the way he would brush away the frigidity of her fingers, rubbing them as he grinned and mocked her lack of control over her own temperature.

The image created had looked so domestic that one might even think it was a memory, like they woke up side by side every day, and Natsu would always take his time in making fun of her, but would also be sure that Lucy was well.

It had looked and felt common, but extremely desirable. And that freaked her out more than anything.

The blonde knew she shouldn't be thinking of her partner like that. What the boy had of loyal, he had of oblivious. She doubted he'd ever thought about what it would feel like to build a family with another person, sharing the kind of moments that only couples did. No, Natsu saw his friends as his family and he probably couldn't even understand the concept of hormones and sex.

The thought made a strange connection in her brain, and Lucy giggled, thinking about how his adored catch phrase "I'm all fired up!" could be used in a very different scenario.

She rolled in bed, turning to smile at her ceiling.

It was okay, she decided, to think such things when alone in her room.

It was okay to think of Natsu's face being there when she woke up, of the feeling of his body above and besides and under hers, of his voice and his scent and his warmth.

She could imagine a life with him, if she wanted to! There was no one there to recriminate her, no one to make her feel embarrassed of secretly desiring such comfort. A comfort that they'd both been denied when younger, and that he would probably welcome just as much as she did.

Lucy could see it in her mind, the two of them in bed on winter mornings. She wouldn't miss summer then, because he would find other ways to raise her temperature.

"Huh, Luce! You look flushed. Are you sick? Is that why you haven't gotten up?"

She opened her eyes quickly, taken by surprise for the first time in the entire month. Natsu was there, towering over her from his seat on the bed, wide eyes staring with concern and confusion.

The celestial mage choked on her thoughts and on her complaint, staggering over the abruptness of his arrival.

"N-Natsu! What on Earthland are you doing here?!" She sat up, grabbing the blankets to hide herself. The girl was suddenly very aware of the mess that her hair had become.

"Happy went to get some fish, so we had to go out anyway, and I thought it would be a good idea to see how you were going." He answered easily, and she peeked over the blanket to see his boyish grin.

Lucy wasn't convinced, but she lowered the covers and fixed her eyes on his.

"It was." She conceded. "But how did you get in? Everything is locked."

Natsu had the decency to look sheepish as he pulled out a key.

"Erza had it. I took it from her because I know you only gave Levy a copy for emergency reasons, and not for the others to find new ways into your house."

There was a sort of bashfulness to his expression that made him seem almost adorable to Lucy, and she had to bite her lip and twist her hands in the cover to stop herself from reaching out for him.

"She's going to kill you for that."

The boy shrugged, looking unconcerned.

"Nah. She respects you. And, if she does get angry, that is the perfect way to get her to fight me!"

Shaking her head and laughing, Lucy sunk deeper into her bed, extremely satisfied with this small change in her morning routine.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Natsu asked, eyeing her carefully.

"I'm fine." She sighed. "Just really, really cold."

Natsu snickered.

" _That_ 's why you are still in bed?" He smirked and the insolence in his tone reminded the girl of the fantasies she'd been thinking of moments earlier. "Move over, you weirdo."

The dragon slayer joined her under the blankets, dropping an arm around her shoulders and pulling Lucy closer. The position wasn't exactly compromising, they were side by side, with their legs tangled, but it certainly didn't feel  _friendly_.

With the proximity, Lucy felt a darker blush creeping into her face.

"See?" Natsu smiled at her, leaning down to bury his nose in her hair and making the girl shiver with how close his lips had gotten to her ear. She could hear his smugness, even if she couldn't see his expression. "Warmer already."

There were times when Lucy imagined how her life would be without Natsu, and she realized that the repulsion she felt towards that idea might mean she saw him as something more than a best friend.

There were times when Natsu would do things like these, that went against almost everything he usually was – harsh, impolite, clueless – and she thought that, maybe, he might see her as more than a best friend as well.

**Author's Note:**

> These works are connected to each other and I'm trying to keep a steady flow of time. Please, tell me your opinions on how this is going so far. You can suggest themes, if you want. I also wanted to know if you guys would prefer for there to be a stronger link between the drabbles.
> 
> I guess this can count as part 1 of my fill for the Nalu Week Extra Prompt: Summer.
> 
> Thank you for reading this!
> 
> The song is Magnolia, by The Hush Sound.


End file.
